I think the dark orbit concept is genius: real time top down space action MMO. And I am amazed that up to today I only know 2 games that truly explored the concept:
Dark Orbit from Bigpoint, and
Warpfire from Gameforge. You could stretch to also
Nova Raider and
Pocket starships but those two don't feel like what you'd expect from an MMO.
Please comment if you know other original real time top down space action MMO that I missed.
Akame_Ga_Kill I will also take note of your comments in these related threads:
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I will not talk about all the smaller DOpserver projects that are made by people that don't have the skills to make a game, don't know what they are doing and just want a quick project for fun, not really serious about it. Which is fine.
My focus will be on the top projects: the Space Aces, the WarUniverse, the Krypton and the future projects to come.
These projects have their uniqueness here and there they deserve credit for, but let's be real, they are all the same game: spaceship with equipment slots,2 configs, drones, laser x1 x2 x3 x4-rocket ammo, smartbomb, insta shield, lock+ctrl spinning npcs with 8bit AI grind hell.
They all lack profound innovation
Why are they just straight copies of DO ? Why none tried to make something better or different ? I think it's simple:
- It's easier to just stick with what you know
- Their goal was always to make a game for the DO players only
- Coming up with an original concept is actually very hard: requires a lot of creativity and concept making skills
- Most of these project leaders are devs and not artists, they lack creative and concept design skills
But it's a shame to stay stuck on this concept because there is really a lot of potential, you just need to look around at what other good games do like you said with Albion Online, there are so many good ideas to get inspired from.
The DO veterans are pushing these creators to make the same game over and over, it's human psychology, people are reluctant to change and like to stay in their habits/comfort, but it's just getting boring now. There is a silent majority that is inactive and bored for something fresh. And that's the purpose of this post, to inform creators that we are tired of playing the same game. Don't listen to the Veterans that say to remake a DO 2009 or 2010 or 2011 or 2012 or +. We've tried all of them and they will point out how one minor feature/detail can change everything but it wont, it's always going to be 90% Dark Orbit recipe and that's the problem. Trying to fix dark orbit by taking dark orbit base concept and adding changes is not going to work. It's the base that is broken. It's a 2006 pay2win browser game concept, it was never intended to be a good game, the concept is designed to be a wallet sucker, that's why it's boring to the core especially by today's standard.
To future devs, It's time to move on, don't cling to DO veterans expectations, they are rusted, there is way way way more upside outside the DO community for such a game.
Be creative, explore and try new things, people will be hyped to play something different , Surprise us !